


Superhuman

by error127pagenotfound



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Crime Fighting, How Do I Tag, Mild Blood, OT21 (NCT)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:01:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 10,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24470230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/error127pagenotfound/pseuds/error127pagenotfound
Summary: “There’s a big mission coming up,” Taeyong picked up. “Assigned to us by the government itself.”This got everyone’s interest. If the government was involved, it was something big, and paid very well.“Basically,” Taeyong looked down at the file in front of him, then back up. “I’m sure you’ve all heard of Jung Jinwoo, a big smuggler of anything and everything illegal through China and Korea’s borders.“Recently, a Chinese weapons and drug manufacturer came into power. She calls herself Gap Chi, and she wants to ally with Jinwoo and his company. If they seal the deal, it’ll mean big trouble for both the government and the common people.”“And we have to go in and stop them?” asked Mark.Taeyong nodded.In a world where a rare percentage of the population was born with inhuman abilities, twenty one of them found each other, scrounged from the corners of the earth. Outcasts, exiles, freaks.Superhumans.Together, they formed a nameless organisation to run operations too risky for normal people.That being said, it wasn't risky for them either. A new threat looms on the horizon, forcing them to put their strength, wits, and teamwork to the ultimate test.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work was left unrated because there is no extreme gore or violence, but there is occasional fighting, deaths of side characters (that is, none of the members) and some blood. 
> 
> Enjoy the read.

“Can you _hurry up_?” hissed Yuta. 

  
Sicheng actually stopped what he was doing to turn around and give Yuta a glare. Then he went back to work. 

  
“I don’t know why you had to come, too,” he muttered. “I could have done everything perfectly fine by myself.”

  
Yuta peered around the corner anxiously. "Because if I hadn’t, you’d still be at the gate stammering to the guards.”

“I’m done.” Sicheng pulled a few wires over the bomb and straightened. 

  
“Ten seconds,” Yuta murmured softly. 

  
They waited. 

  
“Let’s go.”

  
They left, running through the empty corridors. If their calculations were right, they wouldn’t encounter any guards. 

  
If they were wrong, things could always get nasty.   
Sicheng skidded to a stop, looking around the corner. The guard was still there; he’d turn the other corner in a few moments and their coast would be clear. 

  
Then the guard’s phone rang. 

  
He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it cheerily, stopping where he stood. 

  
Sicheng turned to face Yuta, who was watching him closely. “He’s not moving,” Sicheng mouthed. 

  
Yuta’s eyes were wide over his mask. He made a frantic gesture.

  
 _Do something_!

  
“A distraction,” Sicheng breathed. Yuta lifted his helmet slightly, pulled out one of his hairpins, and handed it over. 

  
Sicheng told hold of it with his hand, then his mind. Using his telekinesis, he slowly moved the pin over the guard’s head tapped the metal wall with it lightly. 

  
The sound made the guard look up. By that time, Sicheng had moved the pin the other side of the corridor, where he tapped it again. The guard walked forward, then stopped.

  
_Why isn’t he moving!?_

  
“Yeah, I’ll call you later,” the guard said, then hung up. Sicheng tapped the pin again, more insistently this time. 

  
Finally, the guard left. Sicheng let the pin drop whenever it was. 

  
They waited for a strained moment, then ran for it. 

  
“We won’t make it,” gasped Yuta, looking down at his watch. “There’s not enough time!”

  
“Well, we can’t just die!”

  
Yuta grabbed Sicheng by the arm and threw him against the wall. He felt one of Yuta’s arms wrap around him, and the other covered his face.

Instantly, Sicheng realized what he was doing. 

  
“Don’t-” 

  
The bomb detonated. 

  
He gasped as he was crushed back against the wall, the air turning searing hot, almost burning his face if Yuta hadn’t been covering it. Yuta’s body shuddered as something slammed into him. The sound of the bomb roared in Sicheng’s ears.   
Then everything calmed down. Yuta staggered back.

  
He was asking him something which he couldn’t hear through the ringing in his ears.

  
Sicheng could only stare at him in horror. Yuta looked down and finally seemed to notice the massive piece of shrapnel sticking out of his side. 

  
“Ah.” He sounded a little faint. A patch of blood was rapidly turning his black clothes to dark brown. He reached down and tugged at the metal slightly, then decided to leave it in. 

  
Sicheng grabbed his wrist and dragged him through the corridors to the exit. Somewhere, he could hear guards yelling, and he didn’t want to meet them at all. 

  
They burst out of the building and ran towards the van that was waiting for them. The door was pulled open and they were dragged in. It slammed shut and shot away as fast as possible. 

  
Taeyong looked furious and concerned at the same time. 

  
“What took so long?” he demanded. “And why is Yuta dying again?”

  
“I’m not dying,” Yuta said passively, as Taeil cut his side open and pulled the piece of metal out, making blood gush everywhere. Calmly, Yuta took off his bulletproof helmet and shook his hair free. A few locks escaped from his hairpins. 

  
“Guard number six got a phone call,” Sicheng told Taeyong, taking off Yuta’s mask. “And he just stopped in the middle of the corridor so we had to wait while we distracted him.” Taeil had pressed his hands to Yuta’s wound and Sicheng watched it as it slowly closed up. In a few moments, it was gone, leaving only a narrow scar. 

  
“Check his ribs and back for damage too,” Sicheng urged. Taeil prodded Yuta’s chest and sighed.   
“Broken rib,” he muttered. This appeared to be news to Yuta. Taeil put his hand on Yuta’s chest and healed his rib. 

  
Taeyong turned to Sicheng. “I need a full report on this mission by tomorrow evening.”

  
“I can get it done today.”

  
Taeyong shook his head. “We have a meeting tonight,” he looked at Yuta with a glimmer of trouble in his eyes, then back at Sicheng. “You all have to be there.”

  
Taeil was done with Yuta’s injuries. He looked over at Sicheng. “Are you hurt too?”

  
“I’m mostly fine,” he replied, holding onto Yuta, who was now apparently feeling the side effects of blood loss. He leaned against Sicheng tiredly. 

  
“Thank you for protecting me back there,” Sicheng murmured, loud enough for only Yuta to hear.

  
“That,” Yuta slurred. “Is exactly why I was assigned to go with you.”

  
Sicheng smiled and kissed him lightly. When the van stopped, he dragged Yuta out and into the headquarters. 

  
“Come on,” he told Yuta. “You need a blood transfusion.”


	2. Two

“Why are they so late?” Johnny couldn’t hide his anxiety. “I knew we should have sent an adult with them.”

“Mark is an adult,” Doyoung replied calmly. “Relax, they’ll be fine. They’re a good team.”

They were talking about Mark and Donghyuck, who had been sent on a spy mission together. Due to the security of the area, they had to cut off contact once they entered. It was stressing Johnny out. 

Just then, Johnny’s headset crackled to life, and Donghyuck’s voice came through. 

“-and maybe if you didn’t drop your camera next time this won’t happen and we’ll get out without having to-”

“Hyuck!” Doyoung exclaimed, tapping something furiously on the screen. “What happened?”

“Mark dropped his camera and we had to go down to get the damn thing!”

“Did you get caught!?”

Johnny could hear Mark yelling in the back.

“No, we didn’t get caught but we did have to almost compromise the mission Mark be quiet I can’t hear him no it’s not my fault I pushed you why didn’t you just reverse the gravity around your camera while it was falling?”

“Are you on your way back now?” asked Johnny, unfazed by the chaotic nature of practically everyone. 

“Yeah, we’re in the car now, we’re coming back,” he paused. “No, actually I’m going home. My hours are up, I have a geography test tomorrow.”

Being a minor, Hyuck was only required to work a few hours a day. 

“Okay, tell Mark he’s being dropped of at HQ, there’s an important meeting and everyone has to attend.”

“What sort of meeting?” Hyuck asked, his curiosity piqued. 

“You’ll find out tomorrow, you can’t come because of your time.”

There was a disappointed sigh. “Fine, he’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Johnny took off his headset and put it down, rubbing his eyes. 

He worked for a nameless organisation, which collected people with special powers from all over the country and used them to run operations too dangerous for normal people. 

They were sometimes considered “evil” and sometimes “good” but the truth was, they didn’t really have a set principal to “fight evil” or “dominate the world”. They did what a client asked them to. They’d worked for mafias and the government alike. Given that the client paid them properly, they didn’t really care what the job or effect was. 

Johnny’s specialty was distention: the capability to stretch out flatten his body as desired. But right now, he was working in mission control to cover up for Jaehyun, who was busy. Doyoung got to his feet and patted Johnny’s shoulder. 

“We should get going,” he said. “The meeting is starting soon.”

They left together, going to the conference room where everyone else was assembling. Johnny took his seat next to the head of the table. He smiled at Yuta, who was directly opposite him. He smiled back, looking a little tired. Johnny had heard that he had been injured badly in the morning, but he looked perfectly fine now. 

That was expected, considering Taeil’s instant healing and the fact that Yuta physically couldn’t feel pain. In fact, he couldn’t feel much at all, including physical pleasure, temperature, fatigue or hunger. Sometimes he just kept going without food or sleep until his body had enough and he collapsed, because he still needed those things. 

Johnny leaned forward. “Did you eat today?” he asked. Yuta’s smile slid away as he appeared to realize that he hadn’t, in fact, eaten today. 

Next to him, Sicheng shook his head disapprovingly, and the pencil floating in front of him followed his head movement.   
Taeil was on Sicheng’s other side, curled up into a small ball in his chair and nibbling on a sandwich. Next to Johnny, Doyoung was talking to Jeno. Behind him, tugging his hand impatiently, was Jaemin. Jeno could manipulate water, and Jaemin was a telepath. 

Slowly, in groups, pairs and alone, all nineteen of them assembled in the conference room, Mark being one of the last to enter. He took his place beside an empty chair where Hyuck was supposed to be.

The three newer members, Xiaojun, Yangyang, and Hendery, looked a little nervous. This was their first meeting where all members were present. In fact, the atmosphere was a little more charged than usual, since these were very unusual. 

Everyone fell silent as the head director entered, followed by Taeyong. They sat down at the head of the table, Taeyong next to Johnny, and the director on Yuta’s side. 

The director cleared his throat. “I’m sure you all are wondering why you have been summoned here.”

“For a briefing, obviously,” said Doyoung dryly. “Get on with it.”

The director looked a little annoyed, then decided not to argue with Doyoung (he got angry easily).

“There’s a big mission coming up,” Taeyong picked up. “Assigned to us by the government itself.”

This got everyone’s interest. If the government was involved, it was something big, and paid very well. 

“Basically,” Taeyong looked down at the file in front of him, then back up. “I’m sure you’ve all heard of Jung Jinwoo.”  
Everyone nodded except for the three new members, who whispered to each other in confusion. Yangyang raised his hand. 

“You don’t have to put your hand up, Yangyang,” Taeyong said, suppressing a fond smile. Yangyang put his hand down. “Jung Jinwoo is one of the biggest smuggler of anything and everything illegal through China and Korea’s borders.

“Recently, one of his biggest opposing forces got a new leader. A Chinese manufacturer of drugs and weapons died, and his daughter came into power. She calls herself Gao Chi, and she wants to ally with Jinwoo and his company. If they seal the deal, it’ll mean big trouble for both the government and the common people.”

“And we have to go in and stop them?” asked Mark. 

“Yes, but we have to be very careful about it. We can’t just swoop in and break up the meeting, because they can always do it again, another time, in a safer place. And if either of them die, then the shit hits the fan.”

Johnny saw Sicheng lean over and whisper something in Yuta’s ear. He whispered something back. They looked at each other in confusion. 

“It means everything goes wrong,” Taeyong told them, turning over a page. 

“Why?” inquired Jisung from all the way at the end of the table. 

“Because both of them have connections everywhere, and if either one of them dies in an attack, they can cause a lot of damage,” said Taeyong, then continued. 

“A large and very important meeting will be taking place in China, where influential people from all over Asia will be coming, and they'll be discussing ways to save the world or something, I don’t know." He obviously knew what it was about, but it wasn’t important. 

“Under the guise of that, the two will be meeting at a secluded place in the building, which belongs to Jinwoo himself. They’ll be very safe due to the fact that the place will be heavily guarded and publicised, so no major catastrophe can occur without the whole world knowing, which is bad for the attackers, which is us.

“A lot of care must be taken that the publicised conference isn't disturbed. If anyone of you gets caught by Jinwoo or Gao Chi’s security, make sure you kill yourself.”

Everyone nodded. They knew the risks of getting caught. Torture, interrogation, and eventual death. 

Then the director turned to Yuta. 

“Except you,” he said. “You’re going to hand yourself over to Jinwoo.”


	3. Three

Taeyong surged to his feet, knocking his chair over.

“You said we’d use the other plan!” he exclaimed. 

The director shook his head silently. “Too risky,” he muttered. “It wouldn’t work.” 

“This one’s too risky as well!”

“Sit down, Lee.”

“He could get hurt!”

“Sit. Down. Lee.”

Taeyong dragged his chair back up and sat down. The roots of his hair were turning red. 

Taeil wrapped up his sandwich and put it down, suddenly feeling sick. 

“What do you mean he’s going to hand himself over?” he asked. “Do you want him to die?”

“He won’t die,” the director replied. “He won’t even get hurt,” he paused. “Actually, he will get hurt, but it’s not like he’ll suffer.”

“It’s not like he’ll- He’s a human being!” Sicheng spluttered. 

“He’ll only be in Jinwoo’s hands for an hour or two. In fact, he wouldn’t even meet Jinwoo. He’s only going to meet Jinwoo’s guards, who at the most will batter him up a little.”

“What if they tear him apart?” Sicheng demanded. “He could be maimed or-”

“Or killed,” cut in Johnny. 

“And how will we get him back?” asked Taeil.

“He won’t be killed,” the director said. “They’ll try to extract information from him. And he won’t he maimed either, because Jinwoo always wants to trade people back.” The director looked up at them. “Don’t worry, Yuta will be fine. He’s a valuable asset and I won’t let him get damaged.”

Taeil could practically feel Sicheng simmering with anger. 

Taeyong’s hair had gone entirely red at this point. Yuta was gazing down at the table silently.

“Now,” the director continued calmly. “Let me tell you what to do.”

Yuta didn’t come for dinner. 

Taeil wondered if he had simply forgotten again, or if he was avoiding everyone. He turned to Jungwoo to ask his opinion and realized that he was on the edge of a mental breakdown. 

“Oh my god, are you okay?” 

Jungwoo shook his head weakly. “I can’t do it,” he mumbled.

“Jaemin will help you.”

“No, I have to help Jaemin, but how will I do that if I can’t even help myself?”

“You’ll be fine. I trust you.”

“Please don’t put so much faith in me.”

Taeil fell silent, wondering how he should console Jungwoo. He looked over at Taeyong for help, but his hair had turned green. 

Taeil sighed. Everyone was quiet, musing over their mission. The air was nervous, charged. 

Literally. 

“Xuxi!” Kun snapped. “Stop spreading so much electricity in the air.”

Xuxi waved his hands and the charged feeling vanished. "Sorry I got nervous.”

In the corner of the room, Mark was quietly filling Hyuck in on the details of the meeting. Hyuck’s face was creased with concentration or worry, Taeil couldn’t tell. He had been at home when it had happened. 

This was their “home”. A massive, rickety old mansion that he, Taeyong, and a few others had bought when they had found each other as outcasts on the streets. Slowly, they had gone around finding more people like them, mutants, freaks, outsiders, the exiled. 

They had brought them here, given them a home and a purpose in life. Slowly, they had gathered enough money and reputation to make an organisation. 

And now there were twenty one of them, in their big, disastrous, messy family.

Taeil gazed at them all fondly. Being the oldest, he had been at first worried about being responsible for all them, but then had quickly learned how they had automatically assigned themselves as leaders and caretakers of each other.   
He remembered when they had rescued Yuta from the border, and he had so very quietly whispered something to Taeyong, who had then burst into tears. Much later, Taeil had discovered that Yuta had called him a guardian angel. Since then, they all were each other’s guardian angels.

There were Jungwoo and Jaemin, who had escaped from a mental asylum together after finding out that they were telepathic. Little Jisung, who had been taken in after he’d accidentally turned a building to dust. There was Chenle, who had accidentally turned his friend deaf, stolen half his parent’s money, and turned up at their doorstep with a gun and false documents. 

Sicheng picked up Yuta’s unattended plate and left. After a short while, everyone else started dispersing too. Finally, Taeil stood and patted Taeyong’s now yellow hair gently.   
“Make sure you go to sleep, okay?”

He nodded, his hair turning back to black. 

Taeil left. 

“Isn’t it too suspicious? A group of four guys just happen to go on a holiday?” Sicheng looked nervous. “What if we get stopped? Taeil and I could speak in Korean, Mark in English, and Yuta in Japanese and we could pretend no one knows Chinese-”

“We’re not a group of four guys, our cover is a family." Yuta pointed at himself. “I’m mom, you’re dad, Mark is baby.”

Taeil could see what Yuta was trying to do as they walked through the airport. To take Sicheng’s mind off his anxiety, he was spouting nonsense. 

“But I’m not a baby,” Mark protested. 

“Okay, so you won’t question how I gave birth to-”

“What am I?” asked Taeil, then instantly regretted it as Yuta broke into a grin. 

“Grandpa.”

Sicheng laughed, his tense expression lightening. In that moment also saw what else Yuta was trying to do: calm Sicheng down so that no one finds them suspicious.   
Xuxi had once turned to Taeil and had proclaimed, very wisely: “A suspicious man is a suspicious man.”

Taeil had stared at him in confusion and had kindly offered the suggestion that his words didn’t quite translate very well. 

“Children!” gushed a tall, graceful lady jangling with bangles and beads. Wrapping a very startled Mark in her arms, she greeted them all with great delight. 

Taeil stared at her in shock. Who the hell was she? And why was she drawing so much attention?

“Aunt Taeyoung,” Sicheng purred, hugging her warmly. In a sharper, lower voice, he hissed, “Stop causing such a scene!”  
Taeil understood immediately. Taeyong had said he’d be picking them up from the airport, as they were the last group to enter China. What he hadn’t said was that he’d be in the form of an aunt. 

“Aunt Taeyoung” led them through the airport and into an old, rattly car, where she sat in the passenger seat. The other four had to cram themselves into the back. Mark ended up in Yuta’s lap, and Taeil had expected at least one of them to complain, but Yuta just cuddled him happily. 

As the driver drove off, Taeyong pulled off the accessories he had put on, his face and body slowly turning back to normal. He tugged off a shirt and a skirt, revealing normal clothes underneath. He twisted around and examined the four of them carefully. 

“Anything to report?” he asked. 

They shook their heads. 

“Was your flight okay?” he asked, in a softer tone. 

They all murmured different variations of affirmative.

They were dropped off at a tiny hotel, which apparently only had seven rooms, just enough so that all twenty one of them could fit. 

The second floor window opened, and Chenle and Yangyang leaned out, waving happily. A moment later, they were pulled back in. Taeil heard Kun chiding them as he closed the window.


	4. Four

Jungwoo closed his eyes, trying to let the pills take their effect and soothe his nerves. All around him, he could hear the buzzing thoughts of the others. If he tried, he could block them out, but now he just let them wash over him in a discordant but united hum.

_It was like a river_ , he mused. Or maybe a sea. It looks like it’s going the same way at first, then you plunge in and realize that there’s several currents flowing within. As long as you stay out of the water though, you don’t have to worry about getting caught in a current.

He let his mind drift away and found himself with Sicheng’s thoughts, which were currently occupied with just how he should pin up Yuta’s hair while 'accidently' stabbing him in the skull.

For a moment, Jungwoo was concerned that he might actually stab him, but then he moved on, thinking that Yuta wouldn’t even notice. Jungwoo shook his head, wondering why everyone around him was so violent. He had heard several things from the others heads, sometimes charming, sometimes sad, sometimes dark and personal, but above all, spontaneously violent thoughts, like planning murder over a stolen cookie.

As the members started gathering in Taeyong’s room, the voices in his head got clearer. Someone was thinking very hard about the colour pink.

He took a moment to block everyone out, then opened his eyes. Everyone was perched on everything: the floor, the furniture, each other. Fitting twenty one people in a tiny hotel room was no small feat.

“Chenle!” Taeyong called from the top of the cupboard, where everyone could see and hear him. “Could you please soundproof the room?”

Chenle’s eyelids fluttered slightly as he focused on making sure no sounds went out of the room, then nodded.

“Okay, everyone.” They all looked up at Taeyong, completely silent, as he outlined the plan again, confirmed that everyone knew their positions, jobs, the exact times at which everything had to be done, and most importantly, the consequences of they failed.

This part worried Jungwoo the most.

He raised his hand.

“Yeah?”

“I can’t do it,” Jungwoo said simply. There was a shocked silence.

"I mean,” Jungwoo hastened to elaborate. “I can’t do- I want to swap with Jaemin.”

They all turned to Jaemin, who nodded. “I can do it.”

“You want to- why?”

“I don’t want to kill Yuta by accident,” Jungwoo said in a small voice.

Yuta looked mildly alarmed.

“I can do it!” exclaimed Jaemin. “I won’t let him die.”

_What a shame_ , someone thought.

Thankfully, a hint of humour was laced around the thought. It took a while for Jungwoo to realize it was Johnny, who currently had his arm around Yuta.

“Fine,” Taeyong sighed. “It’s not like we’ve had rehearsals or something.”

A vague thought of how nice it would be if they _did_ have rehearsals drifted from Kun's direction. There was also something else, but in Chinese.

“Okay,” Taeyong was wrapping up now. “We set out tomorrow. Rest well tonight, and good luck for tomorrow.”

“To the world,” Jaehyun murmured.

Taeyong put his hands to his mouth. “To the world!” he yelled.

“To the world!” the others cheered. Tense and excited, they started leaving in groups, until it was just him, Doyoung and Taeyong.

Taeyong hopped off the cupboard and patted Jungwoo's shoulder.

“No pills tomorrow,” he told Jungwoo, who felt his heart sink.

“Why?”

“We need you alert and awake.”

“But I am alert and-”

“Goodnight.”

⠀  
⠀

_God, I wish I could choke on a fork and die._

Jungwoo’s eyes snapped open as he frantically tried to detangle his mind from whoever was suddenly getting suicidal. He had been tuned into Taeil’s mind, who had been softly humming a lullaby in his mind. It had been quite soothing until someone else had barged in. It turned out to be Jisung.

Jungwoo contemplated for a moment whether he should be concerned or not, but the thought had been so casual he decided to dismiss it. He watched Yuta as he pinned back his hair and fitted on a bulletproof helmet. He looked calm, but he was practically oozing anxiety as Taeyong talked to him. He too, was giving off too much nervous energy. His hair had turned a perfect white.

Jungwoo left, looking for a more peaceful place, then eventually settled down with the teenagers.

They weren’t peaceful, but they weren’t as nervous either. Either they were very brave, or just didn’t care. Given the fact that most of them were thinking about the fact they were hungry, he decided on the latter.

_Nice of you to drop by, hyung_ , came Jaemin’s thought. 

_The others are stressing me out_.

_Ah, we’ll be fine._

Jungwoo looked over at Jaemin, who was sipping a coffee so black it looked dangerous. At the same time, he was strapping on bulletproof armour and a gun holster. 

_Good luck,_ Jungwoo told him. _Please don’t get caught. And catch Yuta in time_. 

Jaemin pulled on the jacket that would confirm him as Jinwoo’s security.

_I have to go now, before you all. Take care._


	5. Five

7:55 pm

Renjun tugged on his stiff collar and sighed. 

  
_Go be a waiter at a prissy party_ , they said. 

  
He offered a tray of champagne glasses to some stupid rich man.

  
_It’ll be fun,_ they said. 

  
To be fair, no one had actually said it’ll be fun. But he’d been here for half an hour an he was losing his mind, being polite and charming to a bunch of boring old rich people. He spotted Yangyang a little distance away, with a smile of perfectly exaggerated politeness on his face. 

  
_He_ was doing a good job. Renjun was just on the edge of snapping at someone. 

  
He looked up at the clock and was relieved to see that there were two minutes left to eight. 

Smoothly passing the tray to some other waiter, Renjun slipped out of the hall and hid behind a large pillar. In a moment, Yangyang and Hendery joined him, both appearing out of the shadows. 

  
Yangyang didn’t actually appear from the shadows, he just ran in so fast that Renjun wasn’t able to place the exact moment he arrived. As for Hendery, he did appear from the shadows. He could do that. 

  
“Seven fifty eight,” Hendery whispered. Renjun reached up and pressed the earpiece lightly. 

  
There was a soft crackle, then it shut down to give way to a hum. 

  
There was a moment of silence. 

  
“Clear,” came Jaehyun’s voice. He and Doyoung weren’t with them, they were sitting behind screens in the Korean embassy which the government had agreed to lend to them for the day. It was only a couple of miles away. “All connected?”

  
“Taeil,” came Taeil’s soft voice. 

  
“Johnny.”

  
“Kun.”

  
One by one, everyone gave their names, except Yuta, Taeyong, Chenle and Jaemin. 

  
_Jungwoo_ , his voice spoke softly in Renjun’s mind. It was clear that he had connected to everyone else’s as well. 

  
_Taeyong, Yuta_ , Jungwoo continued.

  
_Jaemin_ , came Jaemin’s own thought. 

  
There was a pause. 

  
“Chenle?” asked Jisung, his voice crackling with a bit of static. 

_With me,_ Jungwoo responded. _He won’t be communicating tonight._

  
Chenle was responsible for making sure that everyone on their crew was able to communicate with their earpieces without any of the security teams being able to intercept them. The job required a lot of effort and focus, and he didn’t need any distractions. Jungwoo was with him, and anything important could be relayed through him. 

  
“Eight pm,” came Doyoung's voice. “Group A, start moving. Xuxi, get ready."

  
They left, dispersing into a small circle of guests. Slowly, Renjun made his way towards one of the men in the circle. He was there for the conference, but he was also one of Jinwoo’s main suppliers. Their job was to cause a distraction for Jinwoo’s security without alerting the conference security. 

  
Yangyang was right next to their target. 

  
The lights went out, plunging everything into complete darkness.

  
There was a collective gasp, and all voices dropped to down to murmur. It was Hendery’s job to knock out the target, since he could see through the dark, and Yangyang’s was to get him out of there quickly.

  
Next to Renjun, there was a small sound of a scuffle and a low grunt. There was a soft “oh!” nearby as some lady seemed to realize that something wrong was happening next to her. 

  
_Shit_.

  
Renjun rammed his body against whoever was next to him, then into whoever was on his other side. Someone cried out as they fell.

  
“Done,” came Yangyang’s voice in his ear. 

  
“Xuxi, get the lights back on,” ordered Jaehyun. 

  
Renjun bent down to help up whoever he had thrown down. “Sir, are you alright? You seemed to have collided into someone...”

  
“Xuxi!” 

  
The lights flickered back on. Renjun slipped away as the fallen guest apologized profusely to the other guest, who apologized back, both thinking that the other had walked into them. In the little chaos, no one noticed the waiter and guest who had simply vanished. 

  
Except one of Jinwoo’s guards, who spoke into a headset and left his position. 

  
“Guard number six is leaving his post,” Xiaojun reported. 

  
“Guard seven and eight are on the move,” came Sicheng’s voice. 

  
“Good, now get moving to your other positions,” said Doyoung. “Yangyang, Hendery, do you have the target secured?”

  
“Yeah, we’re bringing him outside to the van now.”

  
“Renjun, are you still there?”

  
“Yeah?”

  
“Well get out then!”

  
He scurried out of the hall as fast as possible to join the other two. 

  
He left through the back, where Yangyang and Hendery were pushing the man’s limp body into a black van. Someone reached out from inside and pulled him in, then jumped out. 

  
It was Kun. He shut the door and turned to the others. 

  
“Did anyone notice anything?”

  
“No.”

  
“Okay,” he reached up to his ear. “Decoy one successful.”

  
“Good, now get out of there,” Doyoung responded. “Some guards are coming your way.”

  
Sicheng spoke as they ran around the corner.   
“The corridor is clear.”

  
“Good. Ten past eight. Group B, you have ten minutes to get to the corridor.”


	6. Six

8:20 pm

“Mark, is everyone in position?” asked Doyoung.

  
Mark looked over at Taeyong and Yuta, both of whom looked positively ill. Out of all of them, these two had quite possibly the riskiest jobs.

Behind them, Ten was sitting in a thoughtful silence.

“In position,” he affirmed. 

  
“Get ready.”

  
They were perched on golden rods of curved metal that criss crossed across the vaulted ceiling. Right above them was a glass ceiling, and below them was the ground, at least two stories away. It was a long corridor, where Jinwoo would arrive with his guards. At the end of the corridor was a door which led into a small room with two exits, this one and another one exactly the same on the opposite side. That was where Gao Chi was to come from. In that room, they would plan their alliance. 

  
At least, that’s what they would be thinking that they’d be doing. 

  
Yuta was saying something to Taeyong. 

  
“Please be careful,” Yuta’s knuckles were white on the metal rods. “We have to see each other again, alive.”

  
“You be careful, too.”

  
“There’s not much I can do.”

  
Taeyong gave him a tense smile, his face slowly changing. “Well if the mission goes wrong, at least you can rest easy knowing that it wasn’t because you messed up.”

  
Yuta didn’t respond; he simply watched Taeyong as he morphed into a pale, hard eyed person, his hair shortening. 

  
In a few moments, he had turned into Jung Jinwoo. 

  
“This is crazy,” Hyuck muttered. 

  
“You still find all this crazy?” asked Jinwoo, his voice deep and harsh. Mark suppressed a shiver. He’d had a bad encounter with Jinwoo a couple of years ago, and he hadn’t forgotten it one bit. 

  
“Eight twenty five,” said Jaehyun. “Yuta, are you ready?” 

  
“He’s ready,” said Mark. Yuta pulled his mask on.

  
They fell silent, listening to the approaching footsteps. A moment later, the real Jung Jinwoo arrived, two guards on either side and one behind.   
Yuta inched forward, then jumped. 

  
Instantly, Mark and Hyuck threw their hands up, Hyuck so that he could fold the light to make them invisible, and Mark so he could reverse the gravity around Yuta in case things got bad. 

  
The guard on the right of Jinwoo looked up and saw Yuta. In a flash, he pulled out a gun and shot directly at him.

  
A net shot out, wrapping around Yuta. He slammed into the wall, then the ground. Mark felt Hyuck wince next to him.

  
“Good job, Jaemin,” Taeyong muttered to himself.

  
Two of the guards were dragging Yuta away, who was thrashing wildly. He kicked one of them in the face so hard that her black visor cracked. Jaemin was frantically gesturing at the third guard, hopefully convincing them to join the other two in getting Yuta away from Jinwoo. 

  
He succeeded. The third guard grabbed Yuta by the throat and they dragged him away. 

  
For a few, precious moments, Jinwoo was alone. 

Ten pressed his fingertips together, closing his eyes. Time slowed down around Jinwoo, and hopefully the guards too, buying them time. 

  
Quickly, Mark pulled out a dart gun and shot down at Jinwoo. The dart slowed a little as it neared him, then hit the back of his neck. 

  
Jinwoo collapsed at the same time as Taeyong jumped down. Mark slowed his fall, then they watched as Taeyong quickly stripped off Jinwoo’s clothes, and put them on. Mark flipped his hands and Jinwoo’s body started rising like they were in some sort of horror movie.

  
Leaning forward, Hyuck snatched Jinwoo’s body out of the air and pulled it closer, balancing it on the rods and folding the light around him as well. Ten wrapped a sheet around the body.

  
Taeyong was just making the final adjustments to his height as Ten released the guard’s time with a tired sigh of relief. 

They returned, not having noticed anything.   
Taeyong was going to go in as Jinwoo and tell Gao Chi that he had decided not to ally. If things went well, she’d be furious, threaten to destroy his life’s work, maybe try to kill him. If things went bad, she might guess that Taeyong was actually an impostor. In that case, he’d kill her, do his best to escape, and watch Gao Chi’s gang annihilate Jinwoo’s. 

  
They waited, perfectly still, until it was eight thirty exactly. The original Jinwoo had been unarmed, having been searched earlier, but Taeyong had a small pistol concealed in his clothing. 

  
Then he went in alone. 

  
“He’s in,” whispered Hyuck. 

  
“Eight thirty. Decoy two, swap process both successful,” Jaehyun said. “Are the guards still outside?”

  
“Yes, I think they called backup to get Yuta, or left him unattended. Do you think I could go get him before-”

  
“Stick to the plan. Yuta will be fine. If the guards don’t leave by the time Taeyong comes back, knock them out. Once Jaemin is done replacing Jinwoo’s memories, replace theirs too. Understood?”

  
There was a pause. 

  
“Understood,” Hyuck replied grudgingly. 


	7. Seven

8:25

Yuta struggled wildly as the guards dragged him away. They weren’t the same guards who had taken him before, which may cause the others some difficulty, but Yuta had his own problems to deal with. 

  
The main problem was that he didn’t have to do anything. He didn’t have any control over what was going to happen to him. The guards had gagged, bound and blindfolded him, and now they were taking him somewhere. Judging from the smooth surface of the ground, they were still in the building. 

  
He knew he couldn’t get hurt, but he was still having trouble fighting down his fear. 

  
_Let the fear come,_ Jungwoo told him. _They’ll be suspicious if you’re too calm._

  
He heard a door open, and he was pulled into a distinctly brighter room. 

  
His wrists were untied for a moment, then immediately bound to something above his head. They kicked his feet apart, then also fastened his ankles.

  
He shivered, pulling fruitlessly at the bonds. Just as he was feeling grateful that he was at least connected to Jungwoo, his presence retracted from Yuta’s mind almost fully. Something was happening at his end. 

  
“Well, who do we have here?” came a cold, harsh voice. “A little assassin with hairpins?”

  
Yuta’s blindfold was ripped off. He screwed his eyes shut against the light, then slowly opened them. Had it not been for the gag, he might have cried out in horror.

  
It was Jinwoo. 

  
He smiled pleasantly at Yuta, inspecting him closely. They were in a plain white room, completely different from the lavishness of the rest of the building. Yuta was bound to a large white contraption, and there was a helmet hanging above his head.

  
“I fully expected Gao Chi or the police to send someone, but we have you. Whoever sent you?”

  
Jinwoo reached forward and pulled out the gag.

Yuta pressed his lips shut. 

  
“It wasn’t a rhetorical question,” Jinwoo snapped.   
Yuta stuck his tongue out at him. 

  
Immediately, his head jerked sideways as Jinwoo slapped him across the face. He exhaled slowly, most of his fear dissolving as he was reminded of the fact that Jinwoo couldn’t do anything that would hurt. 

  
“Oh yes,” Jinwoo sighed. “What’s the point of trying to beat you up? It wouldn’t make any difference.”

  
Yuta’s pulse quickened. _Does he know...?_

  
“Nakamoto Yuta,” Jinwoo said slowly, savouring the words and Yuta’s expression of horror.

“Japanese. Date of birth, 26th October, 1995. Special power, unable to feel pain. I’ve looked into most of your friends, but there’s always more information I could use.

  
_Jungwoo_ , Yuta thought frantically. _Jinwoo is over here in front of me! He knows! Jungwoo!?_

  
Jungwoo was gone.

  
Yuta was on his own.

  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yuta told him, unable to keep a small tremble out of his voice. 

  
“Ah, but I do. I was very fascinated by your powers. People called you a demon, capable of walking even after being riddled by bullets. I did some research into it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a way to replicate your power, but I was able to find a way around it.”

  
Yuta felt sick with fear. He pulled helplessly at his bonds.

  
“I’ve been very eager to test it out, so you’d be best off if you did exactly as I say.”

  
Yuta shook his head, unable to form any words. 

  
“No? I’ll show you a little taste of my invention, hm? Let’s see how you like it.”

  
Yuta’s breathing quickened as someone behind him lowered the helmet over his head, covering his eyes. 

  
“No,” he whispered. “No, _no_!" He writhed desperately. “Let me go!”

  
“But don’t you want to know what pain feels like?”

  
“No! _Please_!”

  
Then a fire roared up in his body, every nerve searing with agony, beyond anything imaginable.   
He screamed, thrashing wildly, as he felt pain for the first time. 

  
And so, so much of it.


	8. Eight

8:35

_They’ll be suspicious if you’re too calm._

  
Jungwoo was receiving so much fear from Yuta that he could barely focus on the others. His terror was even infecting Jungwoo. He retracted his consciousness from Yuta’s as much as he could without disconnecting completely and focused instead on Taeyong. He was talking to Gao Chi, and doing a good job at it too. 

  
He couldn’t help but think of how brave they were being, while he sat up there on the roof. He’d even pulled out of his real job, putting the burden on Jaemin instead. 

  
Chenle was shivering in the cold. His eyes were closed tightly. Jungwoo made his way to him, careful not to slip over the glass. 

  
_What do we have here, a little assassin with hairpins?_

  
_How do you expect to sustain your empire by going against me?_

  
“Jeno, are you in position?”

  
_Doyoung, the guards are getting suspicious, I’m not trying anymore._

  
“Jungwoo, how’s Yuta doing?”

  
Jungwoo tuned into Yuta’s mind.

  
“They’ve tied him up and-”

  
There was a soft shink of a blade being drawn. 

  
He whirled around, pulling out two knives. A tall figure clad entirely in black stood behind him, holding a long, curved blade. They stood still for a moment, sizing each other up. 

  
Sword attacked first. Jungwoo was fast, and good with his two blades, but with all the commotion going on in his head, he could barely focus on anything. He was being pushed back, towards the edge of the roof. Sweat beaded on his brow as he struggled to keep ground. 

  
Jaehyun was calling his name.

  
“I’m being attacked!” Jungwoo called into his earpiece. “I need backup!”

  
An irrepressible wave of fear washed over Jungwoo, but he couldn’t tell who it was coming from. He realized Yuta was screaming his name, trying to warn him of something. 

  
_What could he possibly need to tell me now!?_

  
A burning hot cut slashed across his cheek. He staggered back in horror as he realized that there two people against him now. 

  
And one of them was trying to get to Chenle. 

  
Jungwoo blocked everyone out and kicked the second person in the chest, away from Chenle. 

  
“Jaehyun!” he called frantically. “I need help!"

  
He blocked another attack from the sword, finally getting an upper hand over him. 

  
Something rammed into his back, throwing him off his feet and sending him skidding to the edge of the roof. His attacker was stalking towards him, while the other raised his weapon over Chenle. 

  
He had two options: save himself or Chenle. 

  
He closed his eyes, invading the other’s mind, forcing him away from Chenle. He made the attacker turn his weapon around and pierce himself in the chest. 

  
Pulling away from his mind, he tried to get back to himself before he got killed. 

  
He opened his eyes, realizing with a jolt of horror that he was being held by the collar over the edge of the roof.

  
He screamed as he was pushed over, falling down several feet of sheer death. 

  
Apparently, you’re supposed to see your life flashing before your eyes when you die. 

  
All Jungwoo saw was him and his friends sitting around the dining tables, watching Kun perform a magic trick and trying to help Renjun figure out how to toast a marshmallow evenly.

  
His body shuddered to a halt in mid air. 

  
Slowly, unbelievably, he started to rise back up. He could hear someone talking. 

  
Mark.

  
His backup had arrived. 

  
_The mission is safe._

  
Then Hyuck started screaming. 


	9. Nine

8:35

Hyuck traced a pattern over the back of Mark’s hand, which was resting on his thigh. His other hand was held up, still making sure that they were invisible to Jaemin and the guards down below.   
He listened silently as Doyoung instructed Jeno, Xiaojun and Taeil on their job somewhere else in the building. 

  
“Jungwoo, how's Yuta doing?” asked Jaehyun once the others started their work.

  
“They've tied him up and-” he broke off. 

  
There was a confused pause. “What?” asked Jaehyun. 

  
There was no response. 

  
“Jungwoo? Jungwoo!”

  
Mark and Hyuck exchanged panicked looks. 

  
“I’m being attacked!” Jungwoo cried. “I need backup!”

  
“Mark, Ten, go to the rooftop and help Jungwoo,” Doyoung ordered. Ten leapt up immediately, lightly springing over the metal rods to a panel in the glass ceiling. Mark gave Hyuck a small good luck kiss and followed him, but at a slower pace, being cautious so as not to fall and die. 

  
They pulled out a panel of the glass and disappeared as Jungwoo called for help again.   
Hyuck pouted. He wanted to go too, but he had to stay and make sure the stupid body stayed invisible. 

  
He glared down at the girl lying next to him. 

  
_Girl_?

  
He scrambled back in horror. Instead of Jinwoo, there was a girl lying next to him, her features slowly changing back to her own. 

  
And she was staring straight at him. 

  
Faster than possible, she lunged at him, tearing at his face. He shrieked, kicking her in the stomach and almost losing his balance. He threw himself to the side as she attacked again, both of them almost falling to the ground. 

  
Out of the corner of his eye, Hyuck could see Jaemin knocking out both the guards who had noticed Hyuck’s presence. 

  
Both Hyuck and the girl had each other in a vicelike grip, trying to throw the other one down without falling as well. Her fingers were tight around his neck, cutting off his air supply. 

  
Struggling to breathe, he kicked at her several times before she was finally thrown off. As he scrambled back, he noticed something he could use to his advantage. 

  
She threw herself at him again, and this time he simply rolled to the side. He seized the end of her long hair and yanked her head back. 

  
She screamed once as she was dragged back, and again as he kicked her through the metal. Her nails tore at his arm as she scrambled for a handhold, then fell. 

  
He closed his eyes as her body hit the marble with a horrifying, loud thud. 

  
For a moment, he forgot how to breathe. 

  
Slowly, Hyuck looked down. 

  
There were three bodies on the ground. Two in black, one in a white sheet, spread out wide and slowly being stained with blood. Her hair was spread around her head in a black halo. Jaemin was standing still, his visor up, gazing at Hyuck in shock. 

  
“The swapped body wasn’t Jinwoo’s,” he gasped, his voice tremulous. “It was a shape shifter.”

  
An explosion of questions commenced from Jaehyun. Jaemin pulled his visor down, gathered the girl’s body in his arms and dragged her to the side. 

  
_Help me hide her!_ he told Hyuck. 

  
His hands shaking, Hyuck raised them and folded the light around the body, rendering it invisible again. Jaemin tore a piece off her sheet and scrubbed frantically at the blood on the ground. He did the best he could, then left the rest, hoping it would blend into the marble design. 

  
As Jaemin worked, Hyuck relayed the events to Jaehyun and Doyoung. Jaemin was working on the guards, removing all memories of Hyuck and the girl. 

  
“Where the hell is Jinwoo then!?” Doyoung demanded. “Jaemin, connect to Taeyong and warn him. Jungwoo, are you still connected to Yuta?”

  
“No, I had to cut off because of the fi-”

  
“Connect to him then! What if he knows!?”

  
There was a pause, where Jaemin pulled the guards back to consciousness and smoothly convinced them that everything was fine, then Jungwoo let out a wail. 

  
“What is it now!”

  
“They’re torturing him! They’re- he’s in so much pain, you have to help him!”

  
“How are they torturing _Yuta_!?”

  
“They got inside his head-”

  
“It’s Jinwoo!” Xiaojun hissed suddenly. “The real Jinwoo! He’s going to the meeting room!”

  
Alarmed, Hyuck looked down to see Jinwoo, calmly walking down the corridor. 

  
The guards bowed to him, Jaemin a little late, and stood aside for him to enter. 

  
It was eight forty. 

  
And everything was going wrong. 


	10. Ten

8:40 pm

Things were going well. 

  
Gao Chi was believing him. And she was getting angry. Somewhere, in the back of Taeyong’s mind, Jungwoo and Jaemin’s thoughts were getting chaotic, but he trusted his crew to pull through whatever little problems had cropped up. He didn’t have time to focus on them. Talking to Gao Chi was like picking his way through a minefield. 

  
_Taeyong! Jinwoo is coming!_

  
Then the door opened and he walked in.   
It was hard to tell who was more shocked, Taeyong or Gao Chi. Jinwoo smiled at them pleasantly. 

  
“The meeting has been compromised,” he told Gao Chi. Immediately, she turned and left. 

  
Just like that. She was gone. 

  
Jinwoo turned to Taeyong. 

  
“You thought you could trick me with a decoy? Or even two? I have my own decoys, little boy.”

  
Taeyong pulled out his gun. Jinwoo smiled. 

  
“Will you really kill me? Do you really have the guts? I have your friend, and I have the power to make him suffer more than-”

  
Taeyong shot him in the head. 

  
He stepped over the body and stormed outside, seizing Jaemin by the arm. 

  
“What happened?” he demanded. 

  
The girl stuttered in terror. 

  
_Wrong guard._

  
He pushed her away and found the real Jaemin. 

  
“What-” he started, but then Jaemin put his fingertips to Taeyong’s head. Immediately, a rush of information flowed into his mind, and he understood everything that just took place.   
The other guards stared at them in utter confusion. In an instant, Jaemin had knocked them out again. 

  
Mark and Hyuck landed down next to them lightly. Mark handed him an earpiece.

  
“Doyoung!” Taeyong called. “Gao Chi knows I was a fake, Jinwoo is dead, we need to get a backup plan or get the hell out of here.”

  
Doyoung. Their mastermind. Capable of remembering everything he read, heard or saw, capable of calculating things that would even take a computer too long. They weren’t sure if he had special powers, or if he was just some prodigy, but he was invaluable member of the crew.

  
“New plan,” came Doyoung’s crisp voice.

“Taeyong, Jaemin, go after Gao Chi. Sicheng, Jeno, do everything within your power to make sure she doesn’t get out. Kill her guards if you have to, just don’t get caught.”

  
Jaemin and Taeyong were already in motion, running through the meeting room and out the other side. Doyoung continued. 

  
“Xuxi, Johnny, Jisung you’ll be rescuing Yuta now. I’ll direct-”

  
“I have to go get Yuta too!”

  
Taeyong heard a sharp intake of breath from someone. 

  
“Sicheng this isn’t the time for personal preferences-”

  
“I have to!”

  
Maybe it was their own fault. Maybe it was just him. Sicheng was used to getting his way. Being with Yuta never helped, since he was always completely ready to give Sicheng whatever he wanted.

  
“I’m going to get Yuta!”

  
“Fine, Xiaojun, you go instead of him. Tear a hole in the ventilation ducts to get there, I don’t know."

  
As he outlined the rest of the plan, Taeyong heard something metallic screeching and realized that Xiaojun had actually done so to get to the others. 

  
Ahead of them, Taeyong could see Gao Chi surrounded by her guards, running away. If she made it out of the corridor, it would be over. 

  
The ventilation grill flew open and Xiaojun dropped out of it, in front of Gao Chi. 

  
Her guards stopped, raising their guns and firing wildly at him. Jaemin let out a strangled cry of horror, but Xiaojun simply raised his hands, directing the metal bullets around himself. 

  
Behind them, Taeyong shot one of the guards down, while Jaemin shot another and seized the last one’s mind. Gao Chi whirled, completely surrounded and unarmed. 

  
The corridor door opened and Jeno walked in, holding a gun and a tray. He gave Gao Chi a pleasant smile as he joined Xiaojun. 

  
“Are you going to kill me now?” she was breathing hard. “You’ll destroy yourselves, my crew will come after you and everything you stand for.”

  
“Which is why,” Taeyong replied, “we won’t be killing anyone else tonight.”

  
Jeno slammed the tray down on her head, knocking her out. 

  
Taeyong pressed a hand to his earpiece. “We have her.”

  
“We have Yuta as well.”

  
“Good,” replied Kun suddenly. “Because we have another problem.”


	11. Eleven

8:45

_What is going on?_

  
It was a question Xuxi asked himself a lot.   
Right now, with everything crumbling around them, he just had to keep repeating it to himself in a repetitive mantra. 

  
_Whatisgoingonwhatisgoingonwhatisgoingon..._

  
Sicheng looked like he was on the verge of tears. Johnny was pulling ahead of them with his long legs as they ran. Jisung was supposed to join them later. 

  
_They’re torturing Yuta..._

  
How does one even manage to cause pain to someone who couldn’t feel pain?

  
They skidded around a corner as Jaehyun directed them to where they guessed Yuta was. At the same time, Doyoung was firing orders to the other team on the same line, which was another confusing aspect on top of everything else. 

  
They stopped in front of a large metal door that required a passcode to enter. Inside, they could hear someone screaming, pleading, screaming again.

  
“Jisung,” Sicheng gasped. “Where is he!? We need to get in!”

  
Xuxi pushed the other two behind himself and pressed his palms to the door. He let hundreds of volts of electricity surge through his body and into the door. 

  
There was a massive sizzling, crackling noise and the locking system went dead. 

  
“Xuxi you fucking genius-”

  
Johnny pulled it open and ran in. 

  
They were in a searing white room with three guards, one of them in front of a control panel and another in front of a large white contraption to which Yuta was bound. 

  
As Johnny and Xuxi knocked out one guard each, Sicheng slammed his palms together. The third guard’s head exploded, blood and brains splattering everywhere.

  
Jisung skidded in, took one look at his surroundings and slammed a palm against the machine. 

  
It crumbled to dust. Yuta collapsed, the white helmet over his head falling away. Sicheng ran over to him and knelt down, but Yuta scrambled away.

  
Sicheng tried to take his hand. “Yuta-”

  
“No!” Yuta screamed. “Don’t touch me!” He kicked frantically at him. His eyes were wild and half focused, his breathing fast and shallow, body shaking with uncontrollable fear. 

  
“Yuta,” Sicheng seized his wrists, making him scream again. “Yuta! It’s me, I won’t hurt you, no one can hurt you.”

  
Xuxi fully expected Yuta to try and decapitate Sicheng, but he seemed to relax a little, tears forming in his eyes. 

  
“They hurt me,” he whispered. 

  
Sicheng pulled him closer and held him tightly.

“No one’s going to hurt you,” he murmured soothingly. Yuta sank into his grip, shivering slightly. 

  
“We have Yuta as well,” Johnny said into his earpiece. 

  
“Good,” came Kun's voice. “Because we have another problem.”

  
There was a series of curses from several people in several languages, all of which Xuxi unfortunately understood.

  
“What?”

  
“Our escape vehicles were found with decoy one. They got taken away or destroyed. We have no way out.”

  
They were doomed. Even if they fixed the mission, removed all traces of themselves, there would be no point if they were found in the building. That was the whole point of the mission: no matter what happens, don’t let anyone know the crew was there to divert the alliance. 

  
“I have an idea,” Doyoung responded miraculously. “Yangyang, can you outrun a bullet?”

  
“I’ve never tried.”

  
“Well, now’s your chance to prove yourself.”


	12. Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me twelve chapters to get an understanding of how paragraph spacing works on ao3.
> 
> My apologies.

8:55

  
“He’s not going to outrun a bullet!” yelled Kun. “He can’t run that fast without getting out of control! I’m not letting him get hurt too!”

_I’m not letting him get hurt too._

Jaemin felt several waves of guilt and grief wash over him from the rest of the members. 

“Send Ten with him, too,” Jaehyun suggested. “He can slow down anything that may cause harm.”

As Jaehyun directed Kun, Ten and Yangyang to the rooftop, Jaemin proceeded to perform the most gruesome action he had ever done in his life. 

He took off his guard clothes and, with Taeyong’s help, put them on the mangled body of the dead girl, disguising her death and body.

He put on the black clothes Taeyong had been wearing before the swap and pulled on a jacket from one of Gao Chi’s guards. 

In the meantime, Taeyong wiped the gun he had used to kill Jinwoo and wrapped Gao Chi’s fingers around it. Then he stuck it in her belt. 

Xiaojun had closed his eyes, focusing on repairing the metal ducts. 

“The guards outside are getting suspicious,” Doyoung said tensely. “Aren’t you done?”

“Not yet,” Taeyong replied as Jaemin pressed his fingertips to a guard’s head and worked on replacing their memories. 

“You have two minutes at most. I’m sending Jungwoo in to help Jaemin.”

Since Jinwoo was dead, they were trying to cover everything up with the guise that Gao Chi had smuggled in a weapon and killed him herself. Since she was apparently the only living person who had witnessed the meeting, and nothing was recorded for the sake of secrecy, no one could say what the reason for the murder was, except Gao Chi herself. 

It was Jaemin’s job to make up fake memories of Jinwoo refusing to an alliance with Taeyong’s help, and then implanting them in her mind instead of the real ones. The guards would also have fake memories implanted in their minds.   
Of course, it wasn’t easy to make up pristine memories on such a short notice, but they would have to do. Jungwoo helped him do the job properly.

Taeyong gathered up the bloody sheet as Jeno gave Jaemin a rib crushing hug. 

“Please be careful,” he whispered, his eyes wide with concern. 

Jaemin just nodded, too nervous to say anything.   
As the others left for the rooftop, Jaemin pulled Gao Chi up by the waist and started dragging her away, forcing her mind to wake up. 

By the time they were outside, she was fully awake. 

“What are you doing?” she gasped.

I have one of the most dangerous criminals on my arm, Jaemin thought.   
“Ma’am, Jinwoo’s security is after you, we have to get you out of here!” he panted, pulling her toward her car. “Hurry, hurry!”

She looked down at his jacket, and apparently needed no more confirmation. The fake memories were working.

Her other guards were rushing towards her, taking her arm and leading her to her car. Quietly, Jaemin slipped away in the chaos. 

He started running back to the building as fast as possible. 

Then someone grabbed his arm and dragged him back. 

He almost screamed before he heard Johnny hiss at him to keep quiet. Immediately, he relaxed. 

Johnny held him tightly by the waist as a sudden sense of weightlessness came over him. They floated up, and up, and up until they came to level with the roof, which Johnny reached out and grabbed, pulling them onto it. 

Mark was there, waiting for them. His hair whipped around wildly in the wake of the helicopter’s blades. Taeyong was leaning out, gesturing frantically at them to come. 

The moment Jaemin climbed in, he was almost knocked over by Jeno, who had practically thrown himself at him.

“You’re safe!" he gushed.

Jaemin and Jeno squished themselves into a seat next to Xuxi as the helicopter rose. Yangyang was asleep in Xuxi's lap, having burned out too much of his energy running too fast while getting rid of the guards who had been guarding the helicopter. His shirt was torn a little where one of the guards had tried to shoot him, but someone - probably Kun - had healed it earlier. Opposite them, Sicheng held Yuta tightly by the waist. He looked absolutely wrecked. Tears stained his face and he drooped limply over Sicheng's shoulder, but he also looked... unhurt. 

Cautiously, Jaemin extended his mind towards Yuta, then immediately flinched as an overwhelming wave of pain crashed over him. 

He tried his best to block everyone out firmly.

“Thank you for choosing Jung Jinwoo’s helicopter as your getaway vehicle,” came Kun's voice over the radio. "Kindly strap yourselves in, sit back, and enjoy the ride."

Jaemin turned to Xuxi in shock. “Is _Kun_ flying the helicopter?”

Xuxi gave him a tired smile and nodded. 


	13. Thirteen

“...which is bad for Sukeban Ni, but we’ll get paid very well so I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Yangyang’s mind wandered as Taeyong continued talking about their next mission. He was sitting in the middle of the long table with Jisung and Chenle, who had decided that the end of a table was no place to be. Taeyong had tried to protest in the name of discipline, but then Jisung had turned his chair to dust so he just let them sit on the table.

Doyoung, who had taken his place at the head of the table next to Taeyong, picked up where he had left off. As Yangyang tried to tune back into the conversation, the door opened and the director walked in. 

He looked surprised when he saw them assembled in the conference room, and even more so when he saw Doyoung sitting in his chair. 

“Hello,” Taeyong said pleasantly. “How can we help you?”

“What do you kids think you’re doing?”

“Planning our next mission, of course.”

“Without me?”

“Oh, didn’t you receive the news?” asked Johnny. “You’re fired.”

He glared at them. “You were serious about it?”

“Of course we were. Jungwoo, kindly remove his memories of us and escort him out.”

“Wait!” the director exclaimed. “You can’t fire me! I’m the director!”

“Well,” Doyoung leant forward. “We just did. We’re running this operation now.”

“But how will you-”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to do a much better job at handling our missions without getting anyone tortured.”

Yuta, who’s head was resting on his arm on the table, looked up. “Who got tortured?” 

The pain Yuta had felt wasn’t in his body, it was in his head, telling him that he was in pain. Every time he thought about it, he would hurt. Sicheng had begged both Kun and Taeil to heal him, but there was nothing they could do. 

In the end, Jungwoo and Jaemin had to pull the memories out, making him forget most of the mission. 

All of them had been furious at Yuta’s suffering, and now the director was going to pay for it. 

“You have two options,” Johnny told him, waving a hand to silence Yuta. “Get your memories erased and leave quietly, or die.”

“And if you choose to die,” Doyoung gave him a sweet smile. “You have so many options! You could get burned alive, electrocuted, drowned-”

“Forced to kill yourself,” added Jungwoo. 

“Turned to dust,” offered Jisung. 

For some reason, he chose to run. 

He didn’t even make it out of the door before Yangyang caught him. 

They let Renjun cremate his body and threw the ashes in the fireplace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Superhuman part 1: Finished


End file.
